Who wouldn't call a foul on themselves?

[ososlow]

Thanks, everyone. Yeah, that guy was a knucklehead.

I even left out the part where he yelled, "GET IN THERE!" when I accidentally knocked in an early 8 going for a breakout. That's what started the whole thing. He didn't like it when I told him I felt it was tacky to cheer for that stuff. That's a whole 'nother thread in and of its own.

Oh well, there's always one in every tournament.

Its simple. He didn't want to lose to a Girl. In MOMA I missed a real easy eightball and the other team jumped out of thier chairs , clapped , hooted and hollered. The guy I was playing did not get out and played a safe. I called a two rail bank and made it ! I looked at their team and said "Now you should clap!" Man was I pissed off. BTW still snowing out there?

 

[Fatboy]

I was in $5,000 action(a race to 20) and had a close call, my opponent didnt ask for a ref, didnt complain about the hit, I kept shooting-this has happened once to me. I thought the hit was bad, I paused and he saw it happen, he never said a word so I kept playing. If it was $50 action I would have called the foul.

My take on it is when your betting alot CYA, cover your ass. I awalys call over a ref for the hit when i'm not shooting.

When I play friends I AWALYS call the foul on myself but when I have a big bet going-I dont do any favors for who i'm gambling with.

 

[JoeyA]

when you see your opponent make an obvious bad hit, and when you ask them about it, they look you straight in the eye and claim it was a good hit. We both know they are lying.

Steve

Steve,
Your example above is one that I try to avoid. If I see an opponent make an obvious foul, I call "foul" and don't give an "honest" person the opportunity to make a dishonest call.

Asking a person if they made a bad hit when it is an obvious foul is a mistake, imo.


JoeyA

 

[oneshotwiss]

I was in a situation at a US Amateur qualifier and we were playing 9 ball. My opponent got down to shoot and at the last second I noticed he was getting ready to shoot at the wrong ball. Luckily I was able to stop him before he stroked it and after apologizing for interupting him while he was down on the shot, I simply said "you may want to shoot that ball instead."
Even though I won the match he thanked me afterwards and said it was great sportsmanship on my part. Billiards is a game of integrity and I surely don't want to cheapen a victory by winning that way...

 

[Tom In Cincy]

Since it is close to that TAX day and I was working on my taxes... I found myself looking for ways to pay less and get back more of what the IRS has deemed appropriate for my income bracket.

I wonder how may of all the 'integrity' minded pool players actually pay all their taxes that they should.

Do you really try to find all the ways you should be paying taxes?

Do you find a cop and tell them to write you a ticket when you found yourself doing 69 in a 65? or 45 in a 40?

How honest are you? or is it juts at the pool table?

I find myself scratching my head and asking... 'or is it a matter of convenience? or that if I don't call a questionable hit a foul and someone is watching will they think I am cheating?'

How will I really feel? did I just cheat myself in the name of 'integrity'?

Fess up buddies... I think I am being a little on the hypocritical side here.

 

[Wortguy]

It is one of the finest sharks, leave the cue ball where you park your butt square in front of the other player and then jerk your head around as soon as you shoot as if to see if he saw anything, then continue shooting! Knowing they cheat themselves they are "sure" you did.

Hu

That's hilarious! Although as an honest player who wouldn't cover up a foul, I think if you did that to me I might have to wonder what kind of foul you just committed!

 

[pt109]

Honor

I was in a situation at a US Amateur qualifier and we were playing 9 ball. My opponent got down to shoot and at the last second I noticed he was getting ready to shoot at the wrong ball. Luckily I was able to stop him before he stroked it and after apologizing for interupting him while he was down on the shot, I simply said "you may want to shoot that ball instead."
Even though I won the match he thanked me afterwards and said it was great sportsmanship on my part. Billiards is a game of integrity and I surely don't want to cheapen a victory by winning that way...

If my opponent helps me to win i don't think it's honorable,i think it's
condescending.
If i was betting or backing a player who instructed his opponent i would
never risk my $ on him again.
If a ref did the same thing he is fired.
If a spectator does it he has to leave the playing area.
In an honorable competition - no quarter is asked for or given -just like
the knights of old.
If you help your opponent win you have cheapened HIS victory.

 

[pt109]

How honest are you? or is it juts at the pool table?

I find myself scratching my head and asking... 'or is it a matter of convenience? or that if I don't call a questionable hit a foul and someone is watching will they think I am cheating?'

How will I really feel? did I just cheat myself in the name of 'integrity'?

Fess up buddies... I think I am being a little on the hypocritical side here.

If a hit is questionable i take the best of it but i give my opponent
the same consideration when he is shooting.This allows action to
go on without a ref and a team of lawyers.
Can you imagine making a game by having your people talk to my people?

 

[Celtic]

A close double hit like that I would likely call on myself, but in team situations in Vegas a player is required to pay attention to their match and see fouls and know when to take ball in hand. You will rarely ever get a guy telling you "that was a foul I just hit, ball in hand for you", normally you have to say "foul?" and they will then acknowledge it and you get your ball in hand.

What you mention there, a close double hit, like say where a guy touches the cueball with the tip of the cue and then quickly shoots to mask it, that is a fairly grey area thing to do, yes an opponent should be watching but movements of the cueball can be slight and hard to see. In most situations in Vegas with most players from what I have seen is att he initial nudge of the cueball and foul the player will stand up and rechalk to see if you saw it, if you are oblivious to the fact he touched the ball they will probably keep shooting.

Is it the most honest or sportsman like way of doing things? No, but it seems to be fairly universally consistent in the way people are at least at that level of amature competition. Most of the people are honest and they will admit a foul when you call it but you have to be paying attention to the game enough to call it in the first place.

 

[Medalist]

Why would he say this to you after getting away with it. It's like a person doing a crime and wanting to get caught. You cheat and get away with it and brag about it? Holy cow. To be honest I have done it like most of us. I felt bad after and decided never to do it again. Now the praying for your opponents misfortune out loud. If your good friends shooting around, hell yes, but in an official match. No way.

 

[stumpie71]

I have always called fouls on myself. If it's going to be close then I will stop and ask for a ref or someone to watch. I watch my matches closely but you will never see everything, so I appreciate a person being honest with me as I would be with them.

 

[ftgokie]

This weekend I had an opponent admit the following to me after our match, "You missed a foul that cost you the match." It was as though he was bragging about it.

"Excuse me?" I responded.

"Yeah, I fouled and you didn't even call it," he says.

"Obviously I didn't see it and assumed you were honest. And you're proud of this?" I asked.

"I stood up and walked around the table. I gave you a chance to say something," he boasted.

Wow... Seriously? Am I supposed to assume that getting up and walking around the table means that it's ball in hand for me? He was facing me and must've double-hit the cue ball. If it hardly moves, how can I see that?

I can honestly say that I have never knowingly fouled and not called it on myself. My conscience would never let me get away with it.

I have been in this situation before..I dont care what happens, or the outcome..I will always call a foul on myself if I know I did it. Id rather walk away with no money and know I did the right thing, than with a pocket full of cash and know that I basically cheated the other person out of the money.

If they wanna laugh at me for being honest, let them...id rather be honest and have fun playing pool than be dishonest and get that mark on me for life that I was a dishonest person.

Shawn

 

[CreeDo]

Since it is close to that TAX day and I was working on my taxes... I found myself looking for ways to pay less and get back more of what the IRS has deemed appropriate for my income bracket.

I wonder how may of all the 'integrity' minded pool players actually pay all their taxes that they should.

Do you really try to find all the ways you should be paying taxes?

Do you find a cop and tell them to write you a ticket when you found yourself doing 69 in a 65? or 45 in a 40?

How honest are you? or is it juts at the pool table?

I find myself scratching my head and asking... 'or is it a matter of convenience? or that if I don't call a questionable hit a foul and someone is watching will they think I am cheating?'

How will I really feel? did I just cheat myself in the name of 'integrity'?

Fess up buddies... I think I am being a little on the hypocritical side here.

I found this to be an interesting point. Those of us who call fouls on ourselves like to think the motive is pure, and we're being honorable etc. But it's funny how we'll be honest when it doesn't count (some inconsequential game) vs. when it could really matter (paying a few extra hundred or thousand per year in taxes). It's easy to be honest when it's convenient, and to some extent I'll admit I'm gonna call it on myself because I think... "if I don't call it on myself, and he saw it... he's gonna think I'm some kind of dirtbag".

It's also easy to fall into the mindset that the universe owes you something; you feel you don't have to call every little nitty foul on yourself, because you don't deserve a big penalty for a minor offense. It's the same reasoning that makes you think "yeah, screw the IRS, the government already gets enough of my money. I earned this, I'm not giving it away." There's a youtube video people link when they want to bash earl, and he talks about how he once didn't call a foul on himself because he got shafted by a bad roll. "There was a ROCK. Under the FELT." ...basically he woulda lost thousands of dollars calling the foul on himself, and he felt like he was owed something due to the horrible roll that hooked his cue ball.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking the same way. Like, "okay this game doesn't count because it's a gaffy table, I just watched the CB drift a foot off course and hook me. There's no money and the outcome is meaningless. Why am I gonna wait for him to come out of the bathroom to hand him BIH?" but I can't bring myself to cheat because basically I feel bad and I expect myself to have enough control to not accidentally nudge a ball. I'm not gonna miss the kick and then pretend like it was a good hit. I'd rather work on my game until I can make that hit, just like I've reached a point where I no longer push or tap whitey during a warmup stroke.

 

[MJR77]

For me it depends...if I am playing socially with friends and just for fun and i touch a ball or something slight I do not...BUT ifI am playing someone I do not know or in a tourny ect ect I call everything on myself

 

[oneshotwiss]

If my opponent helps me to win i don't think it's honorable,i think it's
condescending.
If i was betting or backing a player who instructed his opponent i would
never risk my $ on him again.
If a ref did the same thing he is fired.
If a spectator does it he has to leave the playing area.
In an honorable competition - no quarter is asked for or given -just like
the knights of old.
If you help your opponent win you have cheapened HIS victory.

Whatever you have to do to win is up to you. I don't have to win that way. Karma pays you back in future victories...

 

[pool101]

I was playing in a local tournament Monday night. After his break my opponent (last weeks winner) was lining up to play a safe on the 3 ball, I watched him line up the shot to lock me up, He gets in shooting position when I told him the one ball was still up...
I could have let him foul and maybe I should have but I was there for the game, I would not feel right if I had not told him. Two racks later he is jacked up over the eight shooting on the seven, he made the shot, then he came to me and told me he thought he fouled the shot (Double hit the Cue ball) and gave me ball in hand on the eight.
I won 4-0.

 

[Heyman]

I always call them.

Someone once said. "To yourself first be true."

Heyman.

 

[greenlight]

Personaly i would rather loose and keep my integrity. I dont know how some people live with themselves. Last night at league playoffs a woman shot this shot against us. I was watching from across the room. This is about as obvious as it comes when determining a good hit vs. a bad hit. My teammate walked up to the table to take ball in hand when she said it was a good hit and proceeded shooting for the win. You wouldnt think you need a reff for that one. After the game she went to say 'good game' and it came out "good hit.......i mean good game".

CueTable Help

 

[lms9t]

I can't enjoy winning if I didn't earn it. Stings like crazy when I accidentally tip the cue ball when I line up for the game-winner, but it's I can only blame myself. On the other side, I hate winning like that when that happens to my opponent. A lot of times I don't call things like tiny accidental tips of the cue ball because I want my opponents' best games.

 

[supergreenman]

This weekend I had an opponent admit the following to me after our match, "You missed a foul that cost you the match." It was as though he was bragging about it.

"Excuse me?" I responded.

"Yeah, I fouled and you didn't even call it," he says.

"Obviously I didn't see it and assumed you were honest. And you're proud of this?" I asked.

"I stood up and walked around the table. I gave you a chance to say something," he boasted.

Wow... Seriously? Am I supposed to assume that getting up and walking around the table means that it's ball in hand for me? He was facing me and must've double-hit the cue ball. If it hardly moves, how can I see that?

I can honestly say that I have never knowingly fouled and not called it on myself. My conscience would never let me get away with it.

Samm this happened to me last night. My opponent was shooting at a ball that was about 2.5 inches away from the CB and he wanted to use follow.

Normally this shot isn't in much danger of fouling, but he followed through with his cue and hit not only the cb but 2-3 other object balls with his cue knocking open a cluster. I asked him if it was a double hit because it was quite obvious to me. He denied and I said "really? you didn't see yourself hit the cb as well as all those ball in the cluster with your cue after your shot? That's amazing."

After a shot like that I would have (and I have)picked up the Cb and handed it to my opponent. no questions.

He didn't. But Kharma kicked him in the ass his next shot as he hit too soft and didn't sink a ball or catch a rail. He left me with a simple 4 ball run.